Here is our travel itinerary; There will be four of us; my wife -- her twin sister and her husband. We all get along really well, good thing. However, they want creature comforts -- I voted for a tent and campsite. Rooms for Yellowstone arranged, but we may change depending on feedback. We always try to cram way too much stuff into our vacations/trips and this is our most ambitious. What are your thoughts about our plans?
We are 65, in good health. We all walk a lot and doing a 4-8 mile hike is doable. Seeing the sight in Yellowstone will be a mix of hiking and driving.
Day 1: Fly from BWI to Denver
Day 2: Pike's Peak, Red Rock -- hopefully catch a concert
Day 3: Drive to Badlands, spend night between Badlands and Mt. Rushmore
Day 4: Crazy Horse and Custer's Battlefield, stay close to Rushmore
Day 5: Drive to Yellowstone, eastern entrance
Day 6: 2nd day in Yellowstone, activity tbd -- spend night in Yellowstone
Day 7: Drive to western Yellowstone -- hiking, spend night in Yellowstone
Day 8: To Grand Tetons, spend night in Jackson Hole
Day 9: Day in Jackson Hole -- take the tram -- walk the town
Day 10: Drive to Salt Lake City, spend the night
Day 11: Drive to Las Vegas; Casino and shows
Day 12: Vegas, more Casino and shows
Day 13 : 1/2 day in Vegas -- Fly back to BWI
Are there places you would omit from our schedule? Places you would add?
Thanks!!!
Wyecrabber1-
greetings from a fellow DMV-er.
Sounds like a fantastic trip. In my opinion, you are being too aggressive for the time alotted. You are moving hotels most nights seems like.
I would expand the trip or cut down the real estate covered. You may have checked a lot of boxes, but you can't really do justice to these great sites.
I think it is actually 2 trips: one to Yellowstone, Tetons, town of Jackson (which is in Jackson Hole), Salt Lake, Vegas (maybe open Jaw with those two cities)
One to Custer state park, Black Hills, Crazy Horse, Mammoth Site, Custer battlefield, Badlands (if you wish) flying into and out of Denver (Pikes Peak, Red Rocks).
If i take your itinerary as you state it, I would not do Badlands since there are many other places to see "badlands" in the US. I would put that day back into Custer/Black Hills.
I would bag the either the Vegas leg or Pike's Peak/concert, and expand time in Yellowstone/Tetons. You will be seeing lots of mountains as is (Denver) and the Vegas leg is a lot of travel and out of the way.
Logic is you can easily get to Denver and Vegas, but Black Hills/Custer and Yellowstone/Tetons are places you do not get to by accident.
I hope this is somewhat helpful.
Enjoy!